of Paul Eliaesen and of two German theologians, one of whom was Dr Stageführ of Cologne. The session was opened, and several days were spent in accusations against the preachers as heretics. When the time came for his reply, Tausen suddenly produced a confession of faith in forty-three articles, which he and his fellows allotted among themselves and publicly defended day after day before great multitudes of excited people, in the Church of the Holy Spirit.
At first the Bishops only reminded the King of his oath to put down heresy; but finding that this had no effect either upon him or upon the assembly, they drew up twenty-seven articles against the preachers and asked that their opponents might be kept under restraint till the whole matter was decided. Tausen and his followers replied with an apologia, also in twenty-seven articles, in which they made a violent attack upon the whole Church system. But here the matter ended; the disputation which had been projected never took place because of a disagreement as to the language in which it was to be held. The Bishops asked that it should be in Latin, so that their German advocates might take part; the preachers insisted upon Danish, not only as the language best understood by the assembly, but because their whole appeal was to the common people. Naturally, the popular voice was on their side. There were loud outcries in Copenhagen against the Bishops and still more against the German doctors; and when Frederick dismissed the assembly, enjoining peace upon both parties, there could be no question that the Bishops had lost their case. They were disheartened in many ways: the ablest of their number, Lage Urne of Roskilde, was dead; Jörgen Friis of Viborg had been excommunicated, rather gratuitously, by the Pope; Beldenak had been deprived of his civil rights for disrespect to the Crown, and soon afterwards resigned; and his successor Knud Gyldenstjeme, the same who brought the dethroned Christian to Copenhagen, had so far thrown in his lot with the Lutheran movement as to make Sadolin a kind of coadjutor in his diocese, where he translated Luther's Shorter Catechism into Danish and issued it to the clergy to be used as a manual of instruction. On all hands the Lutherans were gaining ground. In some places there were iconoclastic outbreaks, though both now and throughout the period they were surprisingly few; and to this day many of the Danish churches contain their ancient altar-tables and reredoses, and the clergy wear the old copes. But everywhere the Reform progressed, until Elsinore was almost the only stronghold of Catholicism.
At this point however there came a period of disorder, caused by the death of Frederick I at Gottorp in Schleswig. The effect of Frederick's concessions to the nobles had been to divide the country into a series of semi-independent local governments; and nobles, Bishops, and people alike realised that they had everything to gain or to lose under the new King. Under these circumstances conflict was inevitable. No sooner had the Estates come together than the Bishops demanded that the
